Andrew's Thoughts Of The Day

Tips & Tricks Article

Do you have trouble sleeping at night? Do you use your computer before bed? f.lux might be exactly what the doctor ordered! This program made my List of Applications That Everyone Should Have on Their Computer so if you already have it, good job! To those of you who didn’t go through every single application in that list, WHY NOT??? I personally think it is amazing so read this post to learn more about it.

What is f.lux?

f.lux is a computer application that changes the color temperature of your computer’s display depending on the time of day. It produces warm colors at night and bright vivid colors during the day. f.lux makes the colors on your computer screen look like the room you’re in, all the time. At nighttime, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights (using color temperature that is easy on the eyes). During the morning and daytime, your screen is much brighter as it would normally be and you probably won’t even notice a difference. f.lux is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and jailbroken iPhone / iPad devices.

How do I configure f.lux?

Configuring f.lux takes less than 5 minutes. Download it via one of these download links: Windows, Mac, Linux, and jailbroken iOS and run the installer. When you start it for the first time, the settings page will appear. Enter your location and the type of lighting that you have in your room and you’re done! It does the rest.

I don’t like this! Why does my screen look pink / orange?

When you first use f.lux, you’re going to hate it. The colors are really weird and your eyes will be so used to seeing the normal blue light from your computer screen that it’s going to look horrible. Your eyes will slowly adjust to the colors (about an hour) and you won’t even realize it afterwards. You need to get through this initial phase! Once you do, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.

Why does this help me sleep?

There’s a lot of research that was done by the f.lux team and you can read all about it on their website. To summarize: Blue light affects sleep. Night-time exposure to blue light keeps people up late. f.lux adjusts colors in a way that greatly reduces the stimulating effects of blue light at night. If my summary wasn’t good enough, read the official research on the f.lux website.

Final thoughts

You really have nothing to lose by trying this application (and so much great sleep to gain). Leave me a message below in the comments if you tried it and hate it / love it / want to say hi. Download links one last time: Windows, Mac, Linux, and jailbroken iPhone / iPad devices.

I haven’t made a blog post in quite some time but this list is something that I had to share with all of my amazing readers (all two of you). There was a post on reddit this week (see original post here) where a user asked, ‘What is something you think everyone should have installed on their computer or laptop?‘ and as usual, the reddit community delivered with some absolutely amazing application recommendations. I went through the comments and compiled this list of applications that you need to download ASAP:

FFsplit – A free front-end application that allows you to capture and record what is happening on your desktop. For Windows.

DXtory – Dxtory is a movie capture tool only for DirextX/OpenGL application. For Windows.

Other:

Steam – PC-game client for PC, Mac and Linux (Linux version is still in closed beta).

f.lux – Makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. Must have if you have problems with going to sleep or have problems with eyes or headaches. For Windows.

RedShift – Just like f.lux but for Linux (there exists an experimental Windows build though).

Sublime Text 2 – A great text editor for code, markup and prose. For Windows, Mac and Linux.

Paint.Net – If MS Paint and Photoshop had a baby. It’s a free image and photo editing software for Windows and is a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool.

There you have it — the complete list of software that you need on your computer to handle nearly every situation possible. I’m going to periodically be uploading this list so please leave a comment with your feedback or if there’s an application that you think I left out that belongs on this list.